Greenland Kite Kayak Supertrip 5000

Whitewater

Greenland - August - September 2016

Ben Stookesberry, Eric Boomer and Sarah McNair-Landry embark on a 50 day mission to cross Greenland from sea to ice to sea, using only the wind, water, paddle and one-step in front of the other to transect the world's largest island by a route previously untested.

Whitewater

Greenland - August - September 2016

Ben Stookesberry, Eric Boomer and Sarah McNair-Landry embark on a 50 day mission to cross Greenland from sea to ice to sea, using only the wind, water, paddle and one-step in front of the other to transect the world's largest island by a route previously untested.

The team

With rapids so big they are visible from satellite images, the river will be a challenge for even Ben and Erik, two of the top kayakers in the world. "

Crossing the Greenland Ice Cap by kite-ski is epic. Making a first descent of a river draining that ice cap is landmark. But accessing that river by towing a kayak across the ice cap to the river’s headwaters in order to kayak down to the Arctic Ocean is unprecedented; and that is exactly what Erik Boomer, Sarah McNair-Landry, and Ben Stookesberry are heading out to accomplish this summer.

Today Greenland is one of the most dynamic environments on earth. Each spring the world’s second largest ice-cap continues to melt into some of the youngest and most powerful rivers on earth. But accessing those rivers is a logistical nightmare that Ben experienced firsthand on an expedition in 2013. “The two rivers we were able to access were relatively close to a town, and we still needed a boat-heli combination to get our kayaks to the top. So when Erik and Sarah came up with a new non-motorized plan to access virtually any river in Greenland, I was definitely intrigued.”

Few venture onto the massive Greenland Ice Cap during the summer - rumors of melt rivers and snow swamps keep expeditions at bay. But to arrive at the mouth of the river at perfect flows, the team of National Geographic “Adventurers of the Year” will have no choice but to venture into the unknown.

Utilizing Sarah’s extensive polar experience, the team will use kites to travel 600 miles along the ice sheet, towing their kayaks and supplies, before descending through an unknown and dangerous maze of crevasses to access the source of the river.

Fed by glacial melt, the unnamed river is born on the ice cap, and carves a seven-mile ice canyon. It then twists and drops over ancient bedrock creating waterfalls and rapids as it flows along the calving glacier and into a rocky canyon, surrounded by 6000-foot mountains.

With rapids so big they are visible from satellite images, the river will be a challenge for even Ben and Erik, two of the top kayakers in the world. They both agree that this looks to be the most spectacular remote river they have ever paddled.

After crossing the world’s second largest ice cap, and completing a first descent of a remote northern river, the team will arrive at the Arctic Ocean. They will spend their final days paddling through iceberg choked fiords to a nearby small Inuit community.